THE PHALLOIDE^ OF CEYLON. 143 



crimson. This head is covered with irregular projections, 

 which are either short, blunt, curved ridges, sometimes arranged 

 in a network, or separate, blunt, cylindrical appendages. In 

 the sculpture of the head, this species is intermediate between 

 Jansia rugosa and Jansia elegans ; in fact, it combmes the 

 structure of these two species. It has the blunt anastomosing 

 ridges of J. rugosa mingled with the appendages of J. elegans. 



The head is usually curved, and the truncate apex is per- 

 forated by a circular opening. The gleba is dark olive, and 

 the spores are hyaline, oval, 3x1^"- In the head the inner 

 walls of the chambers are perforated or absent, except at the 

 septa, and the septa diminish until, near the apex, there is 

 only a mem.brane bearing the red appendages. This agrees 

 with Penzig's figure of the inside of the head of Jansia elegans. 



Penzig states that the head of Jansia elegans is light brown, 

 but he does not give the colour of the head of Jansia rugosa. 

 Fischer (Untersuch. Phall., 1900) says that the processes of the 

 head of J. rugosa are red-brown, and does not give the colour 

 of J. elegans. Both these authors state that the stalks of botli 

 species are white. Mutinus proximus apparently differs in 

 having the stalk yellow, and in some cases reddish towards 

 the head, and in having the head deep red or crimson : but this is 

 not a great difference, and a comparison of a series of specimens 

 of the three species would probably show that no distinction 

 could be made on this point. As in Aseroe, the colour persists 

 for a long time when the fungus is placed in alcohol, so the 

 comparison should be possible. As stated above, Mutinus 

 proximus is intermediate, in the sculpture of the head, between 

 Jansia rugosa and ./. elegans, a fact which suggests that the 

 three species might be thrown into one, but the latter two are 

 quite different in having the apex imperforate. As I have 

 pointed out under Dictyophora, the description of a head as 

 imperforate is often based on an incompletely developed speci- 

 men, but in this case Penzig's figures leave no room for the 

 supposition that an apical opening was closed by an evanescent 

 membrane or by the jelly of the volva. Apparently, then, 

 Mutinus proximus is a distinct species. 



But Penzig mentions under Jansia elegans two examples 

 which differed from his type specimens in their greater size, 



